Such a device has become known for example from Austrian Patent No. 386 127, which has proven to be successful in practice. The single little disadvantage observed up to now is that at times ice and hard snow exist in the very last portion of the closing path of the holding cup, so that only after removal of the obstacle or by applying considerable force will it be possible to move the U-shaped bar on the ski boot completely over the locking pin supported on the ski.
The purpose of the invention is thus to avoid the disclosed disadvantage and to guarantee the capability for the binding to function regardless of whether the holding cup can actually be pressed down entirely when a skier closes the binding with his or her ski boot.
To attain this purpose, the invention provides that through at least one further groove and/or a further projection lockable to the pawl, at least one further closing position of the binding is defined, in which the base of the holding cup, viewed in elevational direction, is spaced farther from the base plate of the bearing plate than in the first locking position of the pawl.
Also the European Patent Application 176 951 discloses a device having two locking positions for the pawl, however, it does not disclose a solution to the task which is the basis of the invention. The two locking positions of the known device correspond, namely, on the one hand, with the position during use and, on the other hand, with the open position of the binding. Whereas two closing positions, of which the first is reached even if ice prevents the total approach of locking pin and holding cup, has up to now not been suggested.
The structural design of the thought of the invention can obviously be accomplished with the same effect in such a manner that two grooves on the holding cup are associated with a projection on the pawl, which grooves cooperate alternatively with the projection, or that, in the reverse, alternately two projections on the pawl are locked in a groove on the holding cup.
The construction of the binding of the invention has the result that the cross-country skier can immediately go onto the skiing path even if the binding first only reaches a locking position whereat the locking pin is not yet quite fully moved in. After a few steps, the at first hindering ice is removed and the pawl arranged on the same pivot part as the locking pin locks in the position whereat the locking pin has penetrated as far as possible into the opening at the front of the boot.